I'm currently playing a campaign as Sweden, and I'm, of course, taking over the world. I've already taken care of much of the Danish, and I'm used to seeing the enemy units flee once their numbers have been reduced significantly. However, with the Poles, it seems like a completely different story.

I recently managed to wipe them out, but in the process, had to absolutely destroy units before I was rid of them (they just wouldn't break ranks, except for artillery). When I say "destroy" I don't mean reduce to 10, 5, or even 1 person. No, they would just keep on fighting, down to the very last man.

This leads to my question: do different nationalities have different levels of morale? Were the soldiers I was fighting more resilient because they were Polish (Poland-Lithuania)? Could it also have to do with the fact that they were defending their last stand and capital?

1 Answer
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There is almost no difference to default morale for the individual factions. Some have plus or minus 1, but compared to other factors, it is relatively negligible. You can read the details here. Poland does in fact have a tiny edge.

Since it sounds like your theory is based on few battles, I would rather consider a different explanation: There is a large variety of other factors affecting the morale of enemy units. Usually, more expensive units come with higher morale, such as a king's guard will keep fighting when a usual knight will have routed long ago. Nearby units, especially inspiring units, will increase morale, and very experienced units also have a very large bonus to morale. Most important though are the ratings or the generals involved on both sides.

Finally, the fact that they were defending their last capital weights in very heavily - units without a way to retreat will fight far longer. I'm not certain if they can flee at all - which would explain fighting 'til last man standing. However, I've also had cases of having to kill every single enemy in regular battles (vs AI) with ways for the enemy to retreat.